1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airbag apparatus including an airbag for knee protection which is fabricated of flexible material and is housed in a folded-up state inside a housing located in front of a vehicle occupant seated in a seat for covering front faces of knees of the occupant upon deployment.
2. Description of Related Art
JP 2004-352012 discloses an airbag apparatus including an airbag for knee protection. The airbag is formed by connecting peripheral edges of two panels formed into generally identical contours; a vehicle body side panel deployable toward the vehicle body structure and an occupant side panel deployable toward a seat. The vehicle body side panel is provided on the outer face (i.e., on the front face) with an outer connecting element which is used to shorten the length of the vehicle body side panel in an up and down (a front and rear) direction. The outer connecting element helps shorten the length of the vehicle body side panel in an up and down direction compared to that of the occupant side panel upon airbag deployment, thereby helping the airbag deploy along the rear face of the vehicle body structure which has such a curved shape that its middle region in an up and down direction protrudes rearward.
However, the above known airbag is merely designed to shorten the length of the vehicle body side panel in an up and down direction than that of the occupant side panel by providing the outer connecting element on the outer face of the vehicle body side panel. An improvement has been desired for deploying an airbag even more smoothly along the vehicle body structure.